Exodus 19:5

19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹  and keep ²  my covenant, then you will be my ³  special possession ⁴  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

Deuteronomy 32:9

32:9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people,

Jacob is his special possession. ⁵ 

Psalms 74:2

74:2 Remember your people ⁶  whom you acquired in ancient times,

whom you rescued ⁷  so they could be your very own nation, ⁸ 

as well as Mount Zion, where you dwell!

Psalms 135:4

135:4 Indeed, ⁹  the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel to be his special possession. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 47:6

47:6 I was angry at my people;

I defiled my special possession

and handed them over to you.

You showed them no mercy; ¹¹ 

you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ¹² 

[19:5]  ¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ² tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ³ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ⁴ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[32:9]  ⁵ tc Heb “the portion of his inheritance.” The LXX and Smr add “Israel” and BHS suggests the reconstruction: “The Lord’s allotment is Jacob, the portion of his inheritance is Israel” (cf. NAB). While providing good parallelism, it destroys a fine chiastic structure: “allotment” (a), “his people” (b), “Jacob (b’), and “inheritance” (a’).

[74:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.

[74:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).

[74:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19).

[135:4]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[135:4]  ¹⁰ sn His special possession. The language echoes Exod 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18. See also Mal 3:17.

[47:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “compassion.”

[47:6]  ¹² tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”